Renouncing Other People is Renouncing Oneself

Jacques Gaillot April 30, 2012

Monsignor GAILLOT, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Partenia, started by reciting an inscription which states that “Renouncing Other People is Renouncing Oneself”. Life should be for the welfare of others: a life given to others is a successful life. He spoke on three topics: building peace, non-violence and to refuse injustice.

(1) Building peace.

Peace is everyone’s affair and is in our hands. He spoke of his experience of being at an event with a Moroccan waiter and that everyone left without a word for him. The waiter said that this is normal because for those people he doesn’t exist. Monsignor Gaillot stated that exclusion, as in this example, is something that should not be allowed to happen. Monsignor Gaillot always advises newly married couples to (1) take the time to talk to each other and (2) if necessary, forgive each other. He has found that this advice is always greatly appreciated even by others present at the ceremony.

(2) Non-violence.

This cannot be imposed by decree, but is a personal choice. He visited Tunisia at the beginning of the Arab spring. 2 years before there was a violent oppression of those who demonstrated and now saw this crowd free from oppression through non-violent means. This was repeated in Egypt. He also gave the example of a 19 year old woman who successfully stood up to an aggressor and refused to give him her mobile phone on the grounds that she needed it to contact her friends to organize her work for peace! We should not be afraid but should stand up and look our aggressors in the eye to defuse the situation.

(3) Refuse injustice.

Monsignor GAILLOT lives in a multicultural community and was approached by a young man who was appointed a bishop in the Congo and was seeking his advice. Monsignor GAILLOT advised him not to tolerate injustice. He believes that if the young man does this he will make a great contribution to peace. He also spoke about Jewish people working with Palestinians to combat the injustice they experience on a daily basis.

In conclusion, he said that it is important that we be inculcated with peace.

Jacques Gaillot, born September 11, 1935 in Saint-Dizier, France, was a Bishop of the Roman Catholic Church. Having become Bishop of the Diocese of Evreux in 1982, he was discharged on January 13, 1995, due to his political positions, especially against nuclear weapons and the defense of minorities, which led him to be regarded by his peers as going beyond the reserve required of the clergy. His controversial commitments irritated the other French Bishops and a number of priests and laity of his diocese. Appointed titular Bishop of Partenia, he remains engaged in many social struggles, moral or political, through this website. Very tolerant, he allows Mass to be celebrated in the churches of his diocese of Evreux by priests of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Pius X even though they are still suspended ‘a divinis’.